A few years back, I went to a local community college...paid a few dollars to "apply" to take some grad courses.....sent transcripts, etc....I think a total of maybe $50 to apply.

For that I got a student ID with picture...and NO DATEs on it.

I also got an .edu email address. I've not used that in ages, but likely could reactivate it with some phone calls.

But that ID alone has saved me a TON of money over the years getting educational rates and prices.

Check to see what your local colleges put on their IDs and you might find it worth it to do the same.

It's going to get substantially higher than $4. I think it could end up pushing 7 bucks. Historically, the US has tolerated recessions more lightly than it has gas above 5 bucks. So this is a really really big deal, not least because demand destruction through mode shifting is much less tenable than in the 70s due to greater car dependency, and the SPR is already extensively drawn down ahead of winter. A whacking great recession may well be on the way.

Maybe that high in the "weird" states that overtax and have massive regulations on formulation, etc.....but here in the New Orleans...TX area, I don't see it getting that expensive.....

I don't get from you response one thing clearly...are you saying we had greater car dependency in the 70's or we have it now?

Also, what is "SPR" please?

I just don't see an electric bike/motorcycle holding any interest whatsoever to me...I LOVE my regular motorcycle....the sounds, smells, mechanical vibrations and with all the controls, clutches, going through gears, etc....it's all part of a visceral feel that you only get from a real motorcycle.....

Just pulling a throttle on a silent EV "motorcycle"....even though it might launch you into the future....will not have the same appeal...

Are you under the impression that horse races aren't, occasionally, rigged? That the 'insiders' bet based on insights they get from owners, trainers, stable hands, and jockeys?

How is this any different from the outcome at local horse race tracks that offer gambling?

Not really. The industrial field isnt trying to use the latest kernels or software. They are trying to run some LTS release that does support their hardware and they don't want software changes other than fixes for all the same reasons they don't want to implement hardware changes.

I am not suggesting still supported LTS releases should dump old hardware. However there is no reason anyone realistically should be spending time trying to get first gen althon64s supported on Linux 7.0. There may be no-reason not support them because it does not require an serious special effort but if it did, I'd say those users should stay on 6.x.

I wonder how many people on this site can ride a motorcycle. They have lots of opinions about the clutch, though.

I do. Just about a year ago, I bought a 2023 Indian Chief Bobber (dark horse edition)....just shy of 1900 CC of pure fun.

I could not imagine buying an electric motorcycle....even with all the things they may try to emulate.

There's now way they can simulate how a big V-Twin rumbles at idle or roars with gas......no way an electric can simulate that zen as you become one with the road and a mechanical beast.

Why go to all the trouble with fake clutches and sound effects and shaker motors....to simulate what is already simple there with an ICE motorcycle.

Without even going into real range anxiety (bikes cannot carry large batteries)....it's just the experiences.

The sounds and smells and feel of a real bike....every time I jump on mine, it's an adventure.

I had mine a couple months and removed the slip on exhaust parts and replaced with some "shorties"....now it sound just right....I can't imagine changing the mp3 recording on an EV bike would be quite so rewarding.

Around here you have your summer car and your winter beater. Sure you drive the winter beater all year round to pickup landscaping materials and such, but your summer car never hits those pot holes and salt.

Where do you live where you have "winter" and "summer" cars...??

I've never even heard of such a thing......

Hello from New Orleans....

Hell...still better than an Iran with nuke.....

We can wait them out....$4 gas isn't that big a deal....

"they're simply not investing in emergent technologies"

That's simply not true:

https://ford.simemotors.my/abo... "$22 billion in electrification through 2025 "
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/f... "Ford is investing $5 billion to change the way it makes electric vehicles"
https://www.fromtheroad.ford.c...
By 2030, Ford expects approximately 50% of its global volume will be hybrids, extended-range EVs and fully electric vehicles, up from 17% in 2025.

What is true is Ford's products are not good enough. Globalism is a cold mistress and Ford may be its next victim.

This there decision needs to reflect the actual support costs. Right now x86-64v2 is probably the least common denominator in terms of not requiring a lot of special hoops to support. Maybe you could argue x86-64v1 stuff is still viable but I'd counter you have a lot of instruction set inconsistency there in those products and from a performance and efficiency perspective it probably does not make sense to be using them as daily drivers of contemporary software.

Don't be to sure. History does not repeat but it often rhymes.

Look at the 80s, the Japanese imports (small cars) were eating Ford and GMs lunch. GM invested while Ford for the most part cut cut cut and cut some more. Chrysler also when the cut cut route (but they really did not have any choice other bankruptcy).

GMs technological investments and what not buying EDS never really made them able to beat the imports on cost. Ultimately some protectionist policy came along to save them as did shrinking of wage cost disparities between the US and Japan. Ford mind you benefited from those things too, and without having to set giant piles of money on fire. Then we get to the 90s, Ford has a hit Taurus, Explorer and 150 series pickups is able to start modernizing manufacturer processes again, this time with the all the expensive lessons learn at GM and technological improvements. That left the them the one of member of the big three was able to weather 2008 without tax payer help...

I think it is actually still early in the EV game. Most of America still does not have the charging infrastructure, at least to truly making operating as friction-less as sliding thru the filling station once a week and being in and out in 10min.

You still have majority of car owners who have never owned and EV, you likely even still have a market where the majority of new car buys are at most equally likely to pick an EV for their next purchase.

Not setting yourself up to be supporting a huge body of legacy vehicles with Gen2-3 EV drive trains and battery tech, might prove very smart.

Ford has a lot of existing brand loyalty that will most likely still be there in say 2035.

I really do think the future of most autos is probably electric. At least as far as the American market goes however I think the likes of Ford could very well do themselves some big favors pulling back now, as long as they keep the engineers doing the R&D and plant management people clear about the future, and have them prepared to go all-in again sometime around 2033-5, my guess is they get a lot more bang for their manufacturing investment and marketing dollar alike at that time. There will still be enough first-time-ev market to get a strong foothold and then they can start to take share from competitors with older inferior platforms, and less ideal cost structures.

The K5 was a fantastic budget CPU. It slid rather neatly between 486 and P5 performance, outperforming the highest end 486 units while being cheaper, and for most non multimedia home/desktop PC use of the day did not offer an experience that suffered much vs Pentium machines.

IMHO it was good chip it was not marked to the right segment by AMD, and the Wintel cartel also was in place that kept it out of the market segment where it needed to be anyway.

Honest question: how is the first bet made? Does Polymarket float that one?

Smoke!